The Importance of Subject-Specific CPD

Imagine walking into a hall of around 100 students, with some who have just started school and others who are near the end of their academic journey.  Perhaps you plan to read out the content of a PowerPoint.  Or maybe you will engage them all with a game of table tennis with students?

Either way, how confident are you that you would be able to deliver a lesson that would effectively meet the learning needs of such a wide range of ages and abilities?  I certainly wouldn’t be, and the same would go for delivering a whole-staff training session that would effectively meet the needs of staff who are at different points in their career and approach their teaching in different ways.

This is one reason why I feel CPD on a whole-school level is problematic.  Every single teacher should be able to leave one of these sessions feeling that they have had time to think and reflect in order to improve the learning of their students.  Instead, many leave with a list of strategies that they’ve already tried (and perhaps didn’t work) or aren’t relevant to their classroom.

It is sensible that schools are leaving behind the ‘whole-school CPD’ model, in favour of subject-specific development.  This is vital as the time spent working on specific subjects allows teachers to develop their subject knowledge, support their workload through team-planning and focus on pedagogy/research that is specific to their discipline.  Furthermore, the fact that the training is led by a head of department means that they know their teams and can plan sessions to support the needs of each member of staff in their department.

This being said, it is crucial to train middle leaders if this is to be effective, or we run the risk of department meetings that consist of a list of notices rather than time to enhance the development of our staff.  CPD time should be primarily based in departments, with middle leaders trained in the best ways to train and develop staff.  Part of this also means planning out the focus for a department; we often consider the sequencing and revisiting of knowledge for our students, but the same is true for

our staff.  Activities could involve engaging with research and considering the impact on teaching, reflecting on recent peer observations, reading around a specific text/area of study to develop subject knowledge or even time to read books on teaching and learning.  You could even use videos of teachers in your department to discuss together what effective teaching is for you.

Overall, the main things that could improve CPD for teachers? Smaller class sizes.

Thanks to @teacherthunks , @trudygroskop , @meshishk and @bossymisst for the feedback on twitter!

My Visualiser: Small Camera, Big Impact

When I started to use a visualiser, I was surprised by some of the feedback from students where they saw it as a helpful tool.  One was the fact that I was no longer ‘in the way’ when modelling on the board (it probably doesn’t help that I’m not always great at standing still during delivery); the second was that students felt that my explanations were clearer, as I took more time.

It is true that sitting to model and write does make me slow down a little, mostly as it has made me more aware of how I am delivering the explanations whilst I model.  The summary of effective direct instruction from Barack Rosenshine (2012) was really influential here, as it made it reconsider the importance of making modelling matter.

To start with, this was as simple as me narrating my thought process (taking the effort to slow down and pause as appropriate) and annotating this thought process as I go.  This meant that students had the scaffold of this thought process when they either continued the piece I started or started anew with a different focus.  This was a big shift from the rushed models I’d previously completed on the whiteboard, as being conscious of the limited space meant that I was often restricted to a single paragraph, with limited annotations.

Over time, I also started to replace more of my pre-prepared models with a live version, using the visualiser.  For example, when feeding back after looking at students’ work, I now tend to write model to show students how to get past the misconceptions I identified by modelling those mistakes and the correcting of them.  Again, modelling the thought process has been important here as I’ve had students reflect by asking which questions I asked myself whilst writing that they didn’t ask themselves, before they redraft their original piece.  What I’m aiming to develop is the idea that they shouldn’t ‘just write’ (as is the temptation in exams where time is limited and the required knowledge is substantial); instead, I want to embed the process of ‘write > reflect > repeat’.

As well as modelling the process for written answers (which has proved more successful than the various acronyms I’ve used for analytical paragraphs before), I’ve also used the visualiser to model planning of tasks/writing and the annotation of texts.  I believe that this has supported students’ cognitive load because (as one student mentioned) I’m not ‘getting in the way’ of the explanation/modelling.  Students can look and the board and listen to my narration; they don’t need to be distracted by my physical presence.

Now I am more confident with using the visualiser, I now find that I use it without planning to, which has made it particularly useful when it comes to addressing misconceptions or sharing successes ‘in the moment’ as well as live marking a piece to model effective peer/self assessment.

Faster Reading: A Trial Run

Previously, my approach to a text read in lessons has been to interleave the reading of a text with analytical lessons focused on developing reading skills.  The aim of this would be that students practised their analysis writing skills as we explored a text.  However, I found that I have been more and more worried with the lack of retention when it came to the overall plot and key events (despite regular quizzing).

This led me to the concept of ‘Faster Reading’, where students read two novels back-to-back (focusing on plot rather than detailed analysis) before going back to analyse key extracts once they have a clear understanding of the plot as a whole.  The idea is that it allows students to focus on knowing the plot well rather than the ‘read a section, analyse a section’ approach that I had used previously.

With so much focus on remembering a plot for the GCSE Literature exams, I was keen to trial some of the principles with my Year 10 class this term (reading ‘A Christmas Carol’) and I have been surprised so far with the positive impact it’s had on their retention of key events.

The Process

Teaching a mixed attainment group, I was keen to ensure that students were still able to access higher levels of thinking whilst we read, so I chose to get students to make notes as we read (training them in the Cornell method as we did so).  For this, students had differentiated questions to address in their notes, focusing on comprehension questions at the lower end and a sustained focus on considering Dickens’ polemic message for top-end students.

I was also careful not to overload students with too much time spent reading, so most lessons followed the structure below, with about 20 minutes of each lesson spent reading the text.

Typical structure:

1. Retrieval task through five questions on previous events (focusing on events that were significant to the events of that lesson’s chapter).
2. Reading of the text, with breaks to add to notes (using the Cornell method) and to discuss some key moments/vocabulary in the text through whole-class discussion.
3. Task to reflect on aspects of a key character or theme from that day’s reading- this could be as simple as sketching a character and labelling with adjectives to describe them, or writing a comparison to how they were presented earlier in the text.
4. Students write (in their Cornell grid) a short summary of the events from the section we read that day.

In terms of time, this meant that the reading of the novella was condensed considerably, spread over 16 lessons instead of 35.  The remaining lessons, then, involve going back over key extracts and conducting a detailed analysis, including links to other events across the whole text.

My Findings

As we read the text, I was pleasantly surprised when students were able to make links to previous events- sometimes coming up with ideas that I had not considered myself.  This, perhaps, could be a result of reading the text in a shorter period of time: the previous chapters were fresher in their minds and, therefore, allowed them to access this information more readily.

I have also found that, in the subsequent analysis lessons, students were being more creative with their interpretations and have been much more confident with the analysis of Dickens’ methods as they can draw on other areas of the text to further support ideas.

However, the result I am most impressed with is my students’ ability to recall quotations and events with ease and confidence in discussion tasks.  This was particularly evident in a recent lesson where they were used for an interview lesson.  Here it was intriguing to see what they were able to recall without my direction or scaffolding- again reinforcing how confident they feel compared to previous tasks.

It is important to note that my approach could not be considered rigorous, as there are a number of other variables that could have generated my findings, including a different mix of students and also the introduction of Cornell notes and training in self-testing for students to complete at home.  That being said, I am looking forward to coming back to the text in Year 11 to see if the students recall more a year later in comparison to previous year groups.

Diversity: Check

It’s been a hectic year in many respects for me: moving to lead a department in a new school and moving to a different (and very picturesque) area of Yorkshire has meant that blogging has taken a bit of a back seat.  However, being sat here facing the remaining six hours of a sweaty train ride home after #TENC18 leaves me wondering about the curriculum I put in place in September.

Before I starting leading my current  department in September, I already had some clear ideas in mind about the texts taught at KS3, as it needed some clear updating.  After consulting my new team, we decided on Prince of Mist for Y8 and Trash for Y7.  Both texts aren’t set in England, both texts offer a multitude of opportunities to engage students in both reading and writing.  Yet something still hasn’t sat quite right and a recent discussion with other subjects leaders near me made me realise: my department’s curriculum lacks diversity, someone that is vital in the ‘hidden curriculum’ (a term borrowed from Hywel Roberts) when our intake reflects where we live: predominantly white and middle-class.  This was highlighted in a recent A Level Literature lesson on post-colonial theory when my students struggled to name writers who weren’t white and - in most cases - dead.

With this in mind, I was delighted to see that @benniekara was leading a session on diversity in the curriculum at #TENC18. I went in, hoping to walk away with a reading list of BAME writers so that I could tick the box of diversity and feel like I was giving students a more balanced diet.  How wrong I was.

Here are my main findings from @benniekara ‘s session:

• Diversity isn’t about ticking boxes; it’s about the links between the boxes and how they reflect society
• Diversity isn’t about a checklist BAME writers; it’s about all of the different ‘labels’ we use in society and understanding how representation of different groups has developed over time
• Diversity isn’t about re-writing the curriculum; it’s about using the curriculum to introduce a wider understanding through set texts, but also extracts (fiction and non-fiction) to develop a critical understanding of the questions surrounding race, gender, sexuality, disability, religion and social class

So, although I will be looking at ways to introduce a broader diet of writers to my students, I’m also going to think about how I can teach students about the development of literature from different angles- especially at KS4.  Planning a new scheme of diverse extracts for Year 10 Language seems like the perfect opportunity for this.

Which film will we be watching, Sir?

It's here again: the portion of the year reserved for the age-old debate of whether to watch a DVD in the final week of term. Not so long ago, as a student, I can easily imagine how my teachers would have fought it out to book the hallowed TV trolley to stick on a film at the end of the year to get an hour of peace and quiet while their class caught up on sleep in front of whatever classic the teacher had available. I have a clear memory of this in my Year 9 Physics lesson, watching the first hour of Shrek and wondering why we had to waste time watching a film that bored me even more than the usual drivel (apologies to all Physics teachers- my Year 9 self had yet to realise that it wasn't the subject that was issue, but a teacher whose dulcet tones often had the most enthusiastic of us with heads on our desks within the first five minutes).

Now we are in the bright age of computers with DVD drives and (if you choose to risk it) streaming, film ‘lessons’ are readily available to all.

Please don't mistake these opening comments for a condemnation of film/TV in the classroom: they aren't. There are a plethora of times when showing students films or clips can be vital to their learning. For example: I rarely teach a Shakespeare text without using a Globe version to help students analyse dramatic method and consider how they can stage their own adaptations. However, putting students to sleep in a dark room in front of the latest age-appropriate blockbuster is not the way to engage them in the countdown to the holidays.

Instead, for my last week of lessons, I'm going to get them to apply what they've learnt to new contexts and also to consolidate some knowledge before the inevitable forgetting period that occurs when they jet off to Lanzarote, New York or Bognor Regis.

Year 7 are going to be debating to what extent it’s morally acceptable to use war to create entertainment by comparing their study of Sherriff’s presentation of the trenches with the presentation of the same conditions in some short clips from ‘Blackadder Goes Forth’.

Year 8 have been looking at how poets use their medium to reflect on culture and heritage. So, inspired by a colleague, they’ll be using the poems we’ve explored to create a poetry mash-up to consider how poetry can also be used to reflect the multi-cultural society we live in.

Year 9 will be taking their knowledge of how writers use language and structure to impact an audience outside of conventional literature texts to see how and why song-writers apply the same techniques.

Year 10 are going to be consolidating their extended knowledge of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by creating their own knowledge organisers to collate the gems of learning from our study of Petrarchan lovers, tragic concepts and alternative readings of the text.

My question to you is: how will your classes be making the most of their final moments before the summer? Tweet with #nofilmlessonshere to share and collaborate!

Wrapping up the Mock Process

With the exam season looming (and the results of new GCSEs looking less predictable than the country's future government), I've been reflecting on how my students have been prepared for a new specification where their two GCSE grades for English rest on four exams. Mocks and exam practise have played a large part in this.

In terms of the process of mocks overall, they're clearly nothing new. Even with the old specification, students would have the dry-runs of exam day- with most schools scheduling mock 'seasons' to help students feel more used to the panic. But how much use are mock exams? What do the students get from these apart from more panic ahead of the final exams? And how can we make the process more beneficial?

When I read Alex Quigley's (@huntingenglish) 'The Confident Teacher' earlier this year, I found an idea that would help with the questions above: the mock wrapper. Essentially, this is a self-evaluation that students fill in at three stages in the mock process: just before they sit the mock, the lesson after the mock and when they get their feedback. Overall, it aims to help students see that sitting a mock exam is more than just practising exam timings- if we help them to reflect effectively then it is a chance for them to prepare more effectively.

When trialling this with my current Year 11 class, I started by putting together a document that would ask questions to prompt students to evaluate their preparation and performance overall. You can see some examples below, though the template is also available to download here.

The Process
Firstly, I found the comments students added useful when I was marking their mock papers. It allowed me to support students in their revision by giving further support. For some this involved notes on their wrapper; for others it might mean a verbal conversation in class. It also allowed me to see who had been listening to the top tips I'd given them for revision. For example, the fact that so many were focusing their revision on revising quotations for an exam where it was more important that they know the text more holistically made me consider how I'd get them to realise this in future lessons (before they wasted more time on revising areas that weren't needed). Likewise, it also informed my teaching in terms of considering how to teach them revision skills: though this has always been something I've tried to embed into lessons, the feedback on these forms meant that I could plan future revision-based lessons to be more effective for these specific students.

It also let me know where they thought their weaknesses were after they'd completed the mock- which could then inform the written feedback I gave for the mock. It might be that I'd direct them to a model we'd used in previous lessons to help them work on the area they lacked confidence in, or I might note how they'd actually done well in an area they thought would need improvement- therefore helping them to recognise their own successes.

The final section students filled in as they responded to their feedback, so I had to ensure that the mocks were stuck into books to allow me to look at these and use my findings to inform my teaching. This allowed me to check their understanding of my feedback, along with responses to questions that I'd written on their mocks, as well as letting me check to see if they were confident on how to then improve their revision processes and future responses- meaning that I could again have verbal conversations with any students who I felt needed more support.

My Findings
I found the wrappers to be effective in helping both myself and my students to reflect more effectively on the whole mock process- meaning that they could use it to improve their revision and I could use it to make the precious few lessons left more tailored to my students' needs.

However, it does need to be said that students have to be told that they need to be honest- otherwise some students are bound to see this as an opportunity to impress by writing a hyperbolic account of the gargantuan mound of revision they've completed in order to be ready for the mock. There was also the danger of the middle rating (3/5) when I asked them to rank their feelings/confidence- so much so that I might consider using phrases that mean less students 'play it safe' by picking a rating that sits on the fence.

Overall, I thought that using this strategy (again, thanks to Alex Quigley for suggesting it in his book- no plug intended) definitely made the mock process more meaningful than a chance to practise sitting still for more than an hour.

Dear Miss Bigg,

Dear Miss Bigg,

Firstly I apologise for the formal address- perhaps you would prefer Jody? Though I also think I heard that you've married- perhaps you aren't even Miss Bigg (in either case- you will always be Miss Bigg to me). I've been meaning to write this for a while- every time I read one of the articles in the TES where celebrities share their thoughts on heir favourite teachers, my thoughts go to the main reason that I decided to go into this insane (though also insanely wondrous) profession.

It all goes back to my Year 8 English lessons. It had been a rough year for staff turnover when it came to our class: we had had several teachers across the year and I remember that the mixture started with an eccentric, and bald, gentleman who taught us that irony was him going to get a haircut. Then I remember a couple of others- well I say remember them, I remember that there were others before you started as a head of department at our school. In those first lessons I remember really enjoying English (specifically literature) for the first time: I still have the collection of poetry you had us write for (and my students are always shocked when they pick it up to read and see me name next to a poem by my teenage self).

The next time I had you was for GCSE. There I remember you helping me to enjoy Shakespeare, developing my thirst for more texts outside of the classroom and leading to my study of Literature at A Level. The best thing about A level was your obvious enthusiasm for the texts you taught: if anything it is this that I keep hoping to emulate in my own lessons now. Studying Carter's 'Nights at the Circus' and Blake's poetry was challenging but your enthusiasm helped me develop my own (I cannot help but think of this when my Year 13 students beg me to read Blake's poetry aloud- I'm hoping that this means that they're enjoying it as much as I am).

However, none of this was the thing that made me decide that I wanted to teach English for a profession: this came when I got to help out in your classes during my free lessons in sixth form. Here I saw you working with a (mostly male) bottom set of Year 9s, engaging them in Shakespeare through having them act out the banquet scene with a real banquet and getting them involved in the complex issues of 'Of Mice and Men'. Supporting that class got me hooked.

Despite being unsure of that choice at the end of university- leading to considering event management and settling for retail management before realising that it made me miserable- I'm now a teacher of English and also a subject leader up in Yorkshire (a bit of a trek from Essex). I suppose that really I wanted to thank you. Yes, this job is hard; yes, the changes that come from various directions present a struggle that is often uphill. But I'm still hooked and happy- I'm convinced that this is the best job in the world. Everyday I work, I get to work with topics and texts that I enjoy- and I hope that means I'm getting my students just as enthusiastic as you got that bottom set Year 9 class back in Essex.

Yours faithfully,

Richard